Democrats, GOP debate political non-profits' donors

By Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON
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The advertising onslaught against Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill has been unrelenting — nearly $7.1 million from outside groups determined to defeat the first-term Democrat in an election still five months away. Nearly all the money — $6.8 million — has come from non-profit groups that don't disclose their donors' identities.

By Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced a bill in Congress that would require non-profit political groups to reveal their funders.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced a bill in Congress that would require non-profit political groups to reveal their funders.

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"It's scary because we are being swamped," said McCaskill, who has made criticizing the outside spending a centerpiece of her re-election bid. "If the American people weren't cynical enough about politics, this is going to make them even more cynical."

But voters are unlikely to learn more about those donors before November's election.

Conservatives in Congress have mounted an aggressive drive to block new proposals aimed at unmasking anonymous donations to groups such as Crossroads GPS— which is spending $2 million this month alone on ads targeting McCaskill and two other Democratic Senate candidates. Crossroads GPS, affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove, does not have to reveal its contributors because it is a non-profit advocacy group, not a political action committee.

In a fiery speech last week, the Senate's top Republican, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, denounced a Democratic bill in Congress that would require non-profit political groups to reveal their funders and accused President Obama and his campaign of Nixon-style dirty tricks to restrict opponents' free speech.

The DISCLOSE Act, as the Democratic proposal is known, "is nothing less than an effort by the government itself to expose its critics to harassment and intimidation," McConnell told the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

As evidence of disclosure's dangers, McConnell slammed an April 20 Obama campaign document hitting eight wealthy donors to Mitt Romney as an "old-school enemies list" and said an Idaho businessman on the list has been singled out as a "personal target."

McConnell was referring to Frank VanderSloot, the CEO of Melaleuca, described by the campaign as a "bitter foe of the gay rights moment," after he donated $1 million to a pro-Romney super PAC. Super PACs disclose their contributors.

VanderSloot told USA TODAY he went through "living hell" and lost about 200 customers of his nutritional supplements company in the first two weeks after the list appeared. In the weeks since, he said, supporters have outnumbered detractors after conservative commentators have taken up his cause.

VanderSloot, however, said he doesn't oppose disclosure, but is more worried about journalists "spreading falsehoods" about him. "I believe the public deserves to know where the money is coming from," he said in an e-mail.

Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said McConnell is "running a cover-up operation for the special-interest donors attempting to buy the election."

This week, Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer urged Crossroads GPS to reveal its donors, saying it really is a political organization. He also filed a complaint against the group with the Federal Election Commission in an effort to force disclosure.

"Unless he's sending the same letter to the groups supporting Obama … then this is an ideological witch hunt," Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said.

It could be months before the FEC takes up the complaint against Crossroads, and the DISCLOSE Act's prospects in Congress are dim — where it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the measure's primary champion, said McConnell's criticism is a "crass political move because he believes Republicans in Congress will benefit from the secret bankrolling of campaigns and television advertising."

McConnell "finds it interesting that when wealthy Democrats were giving, Democrats weren't complaining," his spokesman Don Stewart said Tuesday. "Now that the spending is more balanced, they are complaining."

The airwaves in several states crucial to the presidential and congressional contests have been saturated with political ads, driven in part by new super PACs that can raise and spend unlimited corporate and union money.

But non-profits are gearing up to play a larger role. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which does not publicly disclose its donors, plans to spend more than $50 million on elections, Chamber President Tom Donohue recently told reporters. Americans For Prosperity, a conservative non-profit that doesn't reveal its donors, plans to spend $100 million this year.

The stakes are high for both political parties. Democrats have a 53-seat majority in the 100-member Senate. McCaskill holds one of seven Democrat-held seats considered "tossups" by the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

So far, Democratic donors, such as Progressive Insurance founder Peter Lewis, have been slow to counter the Republican spending. Lewis, who spent $25 million in the 2004 election, to oppose President George W. Bush, won't fund attack ads to help Democrats this year, his spokeswoman Jennifer Frutchy said in a statement. Instead, he plans to donate to think tanks and other groups to "build the progressive infrastructure." Lewis "finds the corrupting power of money offensive with its negativity and denigration of opponents," she said.

McCaskill, who will face the winner of an Aug. 7 GOP primary, said it will be hard to match the spending against her, but said: "I'm proud of a lot of wealthy donors on our side of the equation because they don't want to play in this cesspool."

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